If you want to check the status of your 2014 IRS refund, the online refund tracking tool is the ONLY way to do it. Stop looking for a 2014 Refund Schedule because the IRS doesn’t operate that way anymore. There is no longer such thing as the Refund Schedule. The schedule is a thing of the past. Income tax returns aren’t processed in a routine way anymore because the IRS must run every tax return through a fraud check system that slows things down, puts everyone on a different schedule, and renders the Refund Cycle Chart obsolete.

Why There is No 2014 Refund Schedule

Not all income tax returns are processed in the same way anymore. Some don’t get flagged at all, so they do actually do make their way through the processing pipeline in a predictable way. You can actually map them onto a refund schedule because their turnaround times are predictable.

The trouble is, you have no way of knowing whether your income tax return got flagged or not until it gets flagged or you simply happen to receive your IRS refund. The IRS states that 90% of IRS refunds were sent out within 21 days last year. Chances are you’ll get your refund within three weeks. Sometimes it’s a shorter turnaround time, like 10 days. So, if you’ve waited 21 days and still no refund, the tracker can tell you where in the pipeline your return is at the given moment.

Use the Free Online IRS Refund Tracker

The IRS Refund tracker is free and available to anyone who submitted their income tax return. Just don’t use a public computer to enter and access personal data like this. If you don’t have a computer to use you can call the IRS hotline…they will give you only the same information you would have got if you had logged into the IRS website.

IRS Refund Hotline: 800-829-1954

Don’t try to ask the hotline operators anything other than basic information about what’s happening to your IRS refund. They can tell you when it was accepted or whether it’s in process or not. They cannot tell you why it got stalled or when it will move to the next step. They are simply typing your personal data into what amounts to the same website you would have accessed had you had a personal computer.

If you’re looking for this year’s refund schedule, things have changed for 2013. No longer is there a single, all-purpose chart that displays expected refund dates. The IRS has gotten a bit more tech savvy and now offers each taxpayer individual, tailored information regarding where a refund might be.

The New IRS Refund Tracker

It’s called the IRS Refund Tracker, available on the IRS website. Now, instead of looking at a refund chart, you’re asking the IRS for info that’s unique to your and your federal income tax return. To do this, you’ll be asked to enter some personal information so the software can access the information in the database that corresponds to your refund and only yours.

Since you’re going to have to enter your name, social security number and a figure from your tax return, you want to make sure you’re really on the IRS website. The address should contain irs.gov. Make sure you’re not on any other website. There are imposter websites out there, designed to lure you into typing in your personal information so they can steal it. This can lead to identity theft, or simply theft of your IRS refund!

What About the Old Refund Schedule?

Well the IRS gives taxpayers individual information now, but if you want a general idea of how long it takes to get your IRS refund, here it is. The old refund chart gave general guidelines indicating that a refund would be sent approximately a week later. But we all know that last year the actual turnaround time was much longer. This is because the IRS is much more aware of identity theft now. When certain triggers are set off on a return, it gets flagged for further scrutiny. This, of course, takes time. For tax year 2011, IRS refunds took more like three weeks rather than seven days.

There is a general statement now, on the IRS website, letting taxpayers know that the expected turnaround time is 21 days. If you were to make an IRS refund cycle, the total turnaround time from the date your return was accepted to the date your refund was sent out, it would show a 21 day cycle.

That given, you can still get your refund in less time but don’t count on it.

For 2012, some of you have already filed your taxes for 2011 and are wondering where’s my refund money? To find out what your status is on the IRS refund schedule, there’s a checklist of things you should do to get the right answer. There’s a simple process for figuring out when you’re going to get your tax refund, so let’s get started:

Confirm that your 2012 federal tax return has been accepted by the IRS. If you e-filed, you should have an email confirming this. You can also visit the IRS website and type in your social security number to get the status of your return
If you find that your 2012 tax return was accepted, make a note of the date. That will tell you when to expect your tax refund.

An IRS refund schedule will tell you when you get your money back from the IRS after filing taxes. The refund date depends on when the IRS accepts your tax return, not on when you submit your tax return. What’s the difference? If you paper file, the IRS will accept your return once the papers make their way through the US mail system and are processed by the IRS offices. Usually that’s a few days at least. If you e-file, the acceptance by the IRS will be faster, usually the same day or in some cases one day later.

It can take your bank up to five days to post the direct deposit refund to your account, however.

The IRS refund schedule also indicates that if you choose direct deposit of your refund you will also get your money faster. The projected date of direct deposit will be one week after your refund is accepted by the IRS. That is, if you have e-filed.

If you e-filed and chose to receive a paper check, it’s a week plus two days and then your check will be mailed. Then of course it takes another few days for the check to make its way to your mailbox, then a few days more for the check to clear.

The IRS tax refund schedule can give you an estimate as to when you can expect your refund, but there are some circumstances which may delay the process. One of these is suspected fraud.

The IRS has been implementing huge efforts to curb IRS tax fraud and identity theft this year. There has been much success in this department but the drawback has been that some taxpayers have seen huge delays in the IRS tax refund schedule.

The electronic system used to e-file taxes has been strengthened by the IRS, to screen potentially fraudulent returns. Thieves steal Social Security numbers and file fake claims in order to have the refund deposited in their own bank accounts.

If the computer detects something unusual about a submitted claim, the claim will be flagged for investigation. That will hold up the process and you can forget about the ordinary IRS tax refund schedule…it will be weeks more.

Most people who e-file their tax returns see the refund within 10 to 21 days, according to the IRS. Paper returns take much longer.

Another reason for some delays in the IRS tax refund schedule have been computer glitches. The IRS says these have now been fixed. But the main reason for delays has been the number of claims that have tripped the filters for possibly fraudulent claims.